Search

Search only in certain items:

40x40

LoganCrews (2861 KP) rated Joji Presents: The Extravaganza (2020) in Movies

Nov 27, 2020 (Updated Nov 27, 2020)  
Joji Presents: The Extravaganza (2020)
Joji Presents: The Extravaganza (2020)
2020 | Comedy, Music
Not as good as Hair Cake. In seriousness, as someone who firmly believes that FIlthy Frank was perhaps the single greatest online entertainer who ever lived - something this casual was always going to seem like a downgrade for me as opposed to his former persona's caustic, over-the-top antics. But I also really enjoy Joji and feel he's similarly unique in a different way - one of which I dig quite a lot. Ballads 1 and Nectar have some *banger* songs on them that I regularly put on repeat so I was fully ready to have fun with this. But what was marketed as a dark spin on a circus stage performance meets a lite version of The Eric Andre Show ended up being a rather low-energy, repetitive slog that stretches at barely over an hour. I'm still not even sure what the point of this was, the only half-inspired bit was Run (and maybe Sanctuary yet it seemed so telegraphed) but other than that it's a collection of confusingly samey (though never bad) live renditions of songs that you get no benefit of seeing performed here as opposed to hearing/seeing them on the albums or music videos. Joji's downtrodden, walking broken heart persona (which - by the way - I love) tries to mix with this high-energy would-be attention grabber and truthfully it doesn't work or come even close to justifying the ticket price. The costumes and songs are still rock-solid even though two or three of them just feel like the same track. It makes me happy to see George's newfound success in something he's so passionate about, but this was a misfire imo. Alas, not even Joji performing Tick Tock as a 𝘋𝘦𝘴𝘱𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘔𝘦 minion can save it. God-tier ending, though - why wasn't the whole thing more like that?
  
Mary Queen of Scots (2018)
Mary Queen of Scots (2018)
2018 | Biography, Drama, History
January is proving to be a challenging month, so many historical and biographical movies and a lot of me saying "this was great but..."

Scrolling back through Saoirse Ronan's acting career I've only actually seen her in two things, Lady Bird and City Of Embers (which for the life of me I cannot remember her in), and I can't say that I was going in as a fan, but I came out pleasantly surprised by her powerful portrayal of Mary.

The cast in this is brilliant, so many recognisable faces. Ian Hart, Gemma Chan, David Tennant (not initially so recognisable until he starts to speak), Brendan Coyle and Joe Alwyn who is clearly hedging his bets by appearing in The Favourite as well.

Margot Robbie is wonderful, just generally, and I love so many of her roles. I do feel like she was rather underused as Elizabeth, but thankfully her brief appearances were quite striking.

I was so happy to see Adrian Lester's name connected to this. I'm slightly obsessed with Hustle, and his stage and screen work is usually something tremendously entertaining to watch. However, I didn't feel that the script allowed him to get anything good out of Lord Randolph sadly. Guy Pearce fared much better and gave an impressive performance.

Visually the locations and costumes make for a magnificent film, but while I wasn't bored at any point it does feel like it could have lost a few minutes here and there.

What you should do

It's worth giving a watch at some point but I don't think there's any rush to get to the cinema for it.

Movie thing you wish you could take home

Some quality Mary ginger hair... maybe without the halo of volume.
  
40x40

Leanne Crabtree (480 KP) rated Written in Red (The Others, #1) in Books

Aug 26, 2019 (Updated Sep 3, 2019)  
Written in Red (The Others, #1)
Written in Red (The Others, #1)
Anne Bishop | 2013 | Science Fiction/Fantasy
8
8.5 (4 Ratings)
Book Rating
Well I thought this one started on a bit of intrigue. Where had Meg come from? What were these scars she had? How had she so new to...life?

I found this really hard to put down, if I'm honest, the story really pulled me in and despite there not being much of a romance, I'll admit I was hooked. I loved the innocence of Meg and her just being really nice to everyone, which equally confused them and made them want to protect her. It was nice seeing them turn from scary "other" beings to almost friendly. Especially with Meg. She became one of them. Part of their family.

Despite its lack of romance--I can't decide if something may happen between Meg and Simon in the future--I enjoyed this. It had a few elements of horror style things in--at the beginning and towards the end some trespassers are eaten alive and then some detailed snow related deaths towards the end--but although I didn't enjoy that bit so much, I forgot about it quickly enough.

I loved how every species of other in the Courtyard had their own little traits. The Crows with the "shiny". The wolves with their "arroooo" greetings. Tess with her living hair. The Hawks and their love of rats and mice. The elementals and their horses.

It was really well thought out and though it was almost 500 kindle pages long, I didn't lose interest once.

I'm interested enough in this group of characters to carry on the series. I even read the excerpt for the next book and it HAS given me hope for something more between Meg and Simon so I will be buying the next book at some point in the future.
  
    Hive

    Hive

    Lifestyle and Utilities

    (0 Ratings) Rate It

    App

    Hive creates connected products designed to give people the control they want for their homes...

    Superimpose

    Superimpose

    Photo & Video and Entertainment

    (0 Ratings) Rate It

    App

    Just with a few taps, create professional grade superimposed or juxtaposed photos on your iPhone!...